25/11/2022 Huacachina

Huacachina

An “orange” a day keeps the doctor away

For the rest of the day, I stayed in our six-bed-dorm, closed the curtain from my upper bunk bed for some “privacy”. I only woke up when Blake checked up on me and brought me a freshly squeezed orange juice.

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26/11/2022 Huacachina

The big C

Too early to be active

I only got up to go out for lunch with Blake, which turned out to be quite the mistake. My body shut down completely when we sat down in a restaurant (outside) and ordered. It clearly told me to rest. On another thought, ceviche with raw fish should have probably not been my go-to meal… Since I couldn’t sit down much longer, the waitress packed our meals to go and we walked back to our hostel “Bananas”.

Fantastic hostel

Watch sunset from the dunes

In the evening we did a little walk around the oasis and watched sunset from one of the dunes that surrounds Huacachina. It really is a fascinating and unique small place.

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27/11/2022 Huacachina
I felt bad for Blake for being so inactive and patient with me and my sickness. So this morning we did a small activity in the desert, for which I did not have to be physically fit: an ATV ride throughout the desert.

Go quad biking in the desert

At the quad place, we were quite surprised that it was only us two and the guide who did not look older than 20 years old. Lead the way!

Clash of two worlds

We both enjoyed the hour of quad biking throughout the desert. What I didn’t like, however, was the fact that we were riding quite close to some very poor neighbourhoods. And here we were: the privileged while people cruising around on their quads while they probably didn’t even know when they’ll eat next – not a nice feeling!

So much garbage everywhere

Furthermore, Peru has been the one country so far with the most pollution on the side roads. This also became obvious when we were driving around the desert with lots of garbage sticking out of the sand.

Game day

For the rest of the day it was – as Blake likes to call it – “game day”. First Canada played in the world cup (they lost), then Germany was on (we drew) and in the afternoon another of Blake’s many sports teams played (49ers in American football – they won). It worked out perfectly as this gave me some more time to rest without feeling guilty that Blake wouldn’t be “entertained” in this small town.

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28/11/2022 Huacachina
Today we had an ambitious program ahead: visiting a canyon in the desert, doing some wine and pisco tasting, riding the sand buggies in the dunes, going sandboarding and then catching the night bus for 18 hours to Cusco – and all of this while still feeling stick. Is this called German efficiency or German naiveté?

Visit the Canyon of the Lost

At 6.50 a.m. we got picked up at our hostel. Unfortunately, this was before the free breakfast even started. But the guy on the street, who we had booked the tour with, had assured us that we will have a breakfast stop on the way.

Cake for breakfast?

Well, the breakfast stop involved a small shop on a busy street that sold cakes and empanadas with meat. For a vegetarian who likes to eat healthy, I wasn’t that pleased with either option. Moreover, we were on a bus with only Spanish-speaking backpackers and the guide also only spoke Spanish, even though we were promised an English guide. We waited for another 30 minutes on the side of the road for the “international van” to show up and then hopped in with them. At least now we were surrounded by people that we could actually communicate with.

When we were on the way to the wine and pisco tasting, which was part of the same day trip, we could already tell that our timing with the following tour was going to be really tight.

Sample the local wine and pisco

While the walk through the canyon was really impressive, the tasting was rather sobering… We tried one sweet rosé, one pisco and one liquor, which tasted similar to baileys. However, the tour was completely in Spanish and it wasn’t on a vineyard. It was in a wine shop instead, so not really the authenticity we had been hoping for.

Very chaotic tour

Overall, it was great seeing the canyon surrounded by so much desert. But the tour itself was so unorganized that if I remembered the name of it, I’d highly advise you NOT to go with them 😉.

Change of plans

By the time we got back to Huacachina, our next tour was about to start every minute. While still feeling a bit sick, I was very exhausted from being on the go all day and so was Blake. However, I didn’t want to make us stay in this tiny town even longer (usually people are just staying here for a day, we were already on day four). But I also didn’t want to miss out on the sandboarding activity. That is why I was so grateful when Blake suggested to stay one more day in Huacachina and to do the sandboarding the following day.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get the money back for the sandboarding and sand buggy tour. But at this point, I didn’t even care anymore. (I told Blake I’d eat the cost because I was the naive or trusting one that paid the guy on the street the full price upfront.)
At least we hadn’t booked the bus to Cusco yet. So we booked the bus to Cusco for the following night, got a private room in another hostel and picked up our backpacks from the storage room from Bananas Hostel.

The small things in life

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29/11/2022 From Huacachina to Cusco
Staying one more night in Huacachina was the best decision ever! I could not have imagined being on an 18-hour-bus ride last night (but then again: Can I ever?).
We went out for breakfast in a totally empty Huacachina-town. Afterwards I stayed in the hammock by the pool in our new place all day, while Blake watched the world cup games back in the old hostel – priorities.

Do a sandbuggy tour and go sandboarding

Not as expected

At 4 p.m. we finally got to to the main event that every backpacker comes here for: sandboarding. To be honest I was a bit worried that the sandboarding might be very fast and scary. Little did I know that the actual thing I should have been scared about was the sand buggy tour! In my blonde head I had pictured us driving over the sand dunes peacefully while admiring the great views of the desert. Nope! The reality was that we were ripping over the sand dunes in an enormous speed while taking sharp right and left turns on the sand.

I was screaming to Blake against the wind: “I’m so scared!”, while Blake yelled back: “This is the best thing ever!” It seemed like every other backpacker on the buggy shared Blake’s view. Another typical case of: I’m too old for this shit!

Let’s go sandboarding

When we got to the highest sand dune, the driver stopped the buggy and let us out. The “adventure” hadn’t finished yet, as he brought out the sandboards. This was getting better and better… Since Blake was first in line, he had to go down the dune first, which didn’t give me a better feeling of staying up there on my own (and with ten other backpackers I guess). The guide briefly showed Blake how to lie down on the board, where to put his arms and legs, then gave him a little push and within seconds, Blake turned into this little figure at the far bottom of the first dune. It did not give me any strength to do this!

Why so scared?

And then it was my turn… I told the guide that I was scared. But he just smiled at me and mumbled something in Spanish. (I’m pretty sure though that he understood English and that he was just amused by my fear.) I lay down on my board and within seconds I was down at the bottom where Blake was standing.

Finally something less terrifying

After the sandboarding, our guide collected the boards and drove us to another spot from where we watched the sun disappear behind the dunes. While most of the other backpackers didn’t even watch the sunset, this was probably my favourite part of the tour. I guess it’s the age difference between backpackers in their 20s vs. the ones in their 30s 😉.

One last scary sandbuggy ride

During sunset I was already anxious of the last part of the buggy drive over the sand dunes. And of course the driver didn’t speed any less, only because the sun was down. Everyone else loved it, while I clung onto the handle bar with one hand and held tightly onto my stomach with my other hand.
All “good” things must come to an end eventually I guess. The driver stopped at a dune and told us to walk from there. First I thought he was joking. But when we hiked up that last big dune, Huacachina and its cute oasis were right behind it. We only needed to get down that last dune again.

Back at the hostel, we took a shower since we were completely covered in sand and then went out for a curry dinner.
We took a tuk tuk to Ica from where our 18-hour-bus-journey was about to start at 9 p.m..

Greatest bus company yet

The bus terminal from Cruz del Sur looked more like an airport gate: on the one side we had to check in our backpacks and on the other side we had to register. When we “boarded” we even received a little doggy bag with snacks, a water and a juice box for the journey. What an amazing start!

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30/11/ – 05/12/2022 Cusco